When we became art collectors

I have been a fan of folk art for a long time. Several years ago, I noticed around pieces around town and the region that were painted by an artist named Lamar Sorrento. I finally got curious enough to Google him and found his website. There's lots of great art for sale there that Andrew and I spent some time admiring and considering acquiring. Then we contemplated the fact that he takes orders. We started daydreaming about getting our piece painted with the subject of our choosing. We ran through several ideas before Andrew suggested the North Mississippi All-Stars. As soon as he said it, I knew that would be perfect. They are our favorite band, and they're steeped in the Memphis music scene, a favorite subject of Mr. Sorrento's. So Andrew sent him an email and proposed this idea. He responded and asked us to send him a couple of pictures to get a sense of what we were looking for. We found a couple on the interwebs and sent those in. We were then told to hang cool, that he painted fast, and we would get our painting soon. We had commissioned a piece of art! I felt so highfalutin! About 2 weeks later, he sent us a picture of the painting and asked us what we thought. We were both delighted beyond words. We got to go to his residence a couple days later and pick up our painting. It was even more awesome in person. I got a little fangirl tongue-tied around this much-admired artist, but he was quite gracious. We got out of there before I embarrassed myself and headed straight home to hang our art on the wall. I love it and love being a nascent art collector.

Filling my time

It is a strange feeling, having this thing called "free time." For so many, many years, I have never known such a sensation. While in college for 16 years, one becomes desensitized to the feeling of always being on the hook for something. Whether it's reading a paper or textbook, studying for classes or, for the love of all things sacred, for comps, preparing for an experiment, running an experiment, breaking down an experiment, analyzing an experiment, writing up an experiment, and preparing a presentation on an experiment, there has never been a shortage of things to do, and I lost the feeling that my time is my own. Now, with all the experiments run, all the dissertation written, all the courses passed, I am getting to know myself again. It is a little daunting, finding something that you enjoy to pass the hours from waking until sleep. That just never used to be a problem. Now, I'm remembering, "Oh yeah! I have time to catch up on my blog," or "Hmm... maybe I will start volunteering my time to something." I assume I will get used to this feeling, but right now, I am a little uneasy with my new found quiescence.

So, what else has been happening? I've been enjoying my job as a delivery driver for Meals in Motion, a multirestaurant delivery service in East Memphis owned by an awesome young couple, Abby and Jackson Huffman. I really like working for them and the job pays a lot better than being an adjunct. Madison came to visit for Thanksgiving break, which was nice, and she's coming back during Christmas break too! We got the carpet replaced in the den and now have lovely laminate wood flooring which is so many times better than that dark green thick carpet. We also got the house interior painted, which was something of a fiasco, but the result is very nice. We've been to a few concerts: the North Mississippi Allstars at Minglewood for the annual Thanksgiving leftovers show and at the new/old cool venue, Lafayette's Music Room, and St. Paul and the Broken Bones at the Shell and Minglewood, and I caught a Minivan show the other night and saw Atmosphere in Little Rock a few weeks ago. In all it's been a pretty good run lately.